Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next TWO weeks, July 1-14, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this coming week and will return the week of July 9.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for June 28, 2018: FY2019 defense appropriations bills make headway; House passes two space bills; and JAXA’s Hayabusa2 finally arrives at Ryugu. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
The House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee approved legislation today that assigns responsibility for civil Space Situational Awareness (SSA) to the Department of Commerce. The committee’s Democratic leadership opposed the bill, but two committee Democrats supported it nonetheless. The bill also defines NASA’s role in the science and technology that is fundamental to SSA.
NASA announced today that the launch date for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has been delayed yet again, this time to March 30, 2021. It is the latest setback for the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was rebaselined in 2011 due to previous cost overruns and schedule delays. At that time, NASA vowed it would launch in October 2018, but that date slipped to 2019 to 2020 and now to 2021. The cost has also grown and will breach the $8 billion development cap set by Congress, meaning it will have to be reauthorized.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and representatives of three commercial space launch companies told Congress today that safety must be the top priority as space launches are integrated into the National Airspace System (NAS). The increasing cadence of launches and growing number of spaceports make that integration essential. Information technology (IT), such as the FAA’s new Space Data Integrator, will be one of the solutions.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of June 24-30, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Gen. John Hyten and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told two congressional committees today that this is not the time to get caught up in parochial issues over which non-DOD agency should take charge of sharing Space Situational Awareness (SSA) data with non-military users to avoid collisions in space. The White House has decided it should be the Department of Commerce, but others favor the Department of Transportation (DOT). At today’s hearing, Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) argued that Congress needs to make the decision, not the White House, and has yet to do its job.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for June 21, 2018: Trump Administration looking at turning NASA Centers into FFRDCs, Air Force buys a Falcon Heavy for a classified launch, NASA releases draft BAA for Gateway element. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for June 20, 2018: White House releases NEO preparedness action plan; Pentagon moving forward on Space Force; Mars dust storm goes global. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-3) today as expected, but it was his order to Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to create a Space Force that stole the show. Trump has called for creation of a Space Force before, but his explicit direction to his top military officer to do it was a first, publicly at least. In reality, however, Congress would have a major role to play in any such military reorganization.